[insider] July 28) Reckoning With Our History, Bad News for Bears, Photographing Jaguars...[more]


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"Group on Summit of Mount Brewer" (1902). | Photograph by Edward T. Parsons
| Michael Brune |

Reckoning With Our History

"The Sierra Club is a 128-year-old organization with a complex history, some of which has caused significant and immeasurable harm,” says Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. “As defenders of Black life pull down Confederate monuments across the country, it’s time for us to reckon with the ways the Sierra Club has contributed to systemic racism."

This first in a series of posts about the Sierra Club’s history takes an unflinching look at John Muir and other early Sierra Club leaders, and commits to becoming an actively anti-racist organization.


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The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park | Photo by Jacob W. Frank/National Park Service
| Article |

John Lewis’s Legacy Keeps Growing

The Great American Outdoors Act may be the most important piece of conservation legislation to come along in a generation. First introduced in the House of Representatives last year by the late John Lewis, it permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund and provides nearly $10 billion to deal with the backlog of maintenance projects all across our public lands. Last week, the House overwhelmingly passed this landmark bill by a vote of 310-107, following last month’s 73-25 vote in the Senate.

”This vote turns a promise broken into a promise kept,” says Michael Brune.


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Photo courtesy of J. Drew Lanham
| Sierra Magazine |

With Liberty, Justice, and Wildness for All

J. Drew Lanham, author of the award-winning book The Home Place, addresses the United States' legacy of Black oppression and race-based violence, and talks about how, for him, “being out and away [is] the truest salve.”

Learn why Lanham believes that we need to see “wildness as an inalienable right.”

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Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe/Getty Images
| Sierra Magazine |

What Do Air Pollution and Police Violence Have in Common?

It’s long been known that air pollution disproportionately afflicts low-income communities and communities of color.A recent study found that particulate matter in air pollution not only exacerbates respiratory ailments but also increases the likelihood of contracting COVID-19. Black Americans are especially susceptible to the virus, with a mortality rate 2.3 times higher than white Americans. Now it has come to light that segregated cities have measurably higher levels of air pollution than more integrated cities.

But maybe that makes perfect sense.


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Photo by AP/Photo/Evan Vucci
| Sierra Magazine |

Trump Orders NEPA "Overhaul"

On July 15, President Trump announced that his administration is moving forward with an “overhaul” of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) after more than 30 industry groups, including the American Petroleum Institute, signed a letter urging it to do so. The overhaul will make it easier for industry to pollute and harder for communities—especially communities of color—to voice their concerns about projects that might harm or sicken them.

"I've been wanting to do this from day one,” Trump crowed.


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Fin Dome over Arrowhead Lake, Kings Canyon National Park | Photo by Tom Valtin
| Sierra Club Environmental Law Program |

Not So Fast on NEPA, Say Sierra Club Legal Eagles

In response to President Trump’s plans to “overhaul” NEPA, last week the Sierra Club, NRDC, and a coalition of environmental justice allies are challenging the proposed overhaul (i.e., weakening) of NEPA in federal court. “It’s a microcosm of the Trump administration itself, damaging and short-sighted and designed to prop up a dying fossil fuel industry in order to help a small handful of corporate executives while harming the rest of us,” says Sierra Club senior attorney Nathaniel Shoaff.

Continue reading.


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Photo by Alejandro Prieto
| Sierra Magazine |

Jaguar Dreams

For nearly a year, photographer Alejandro Prieto roamed the mountains, forests, jungles, deserts, and mangrove swamps of southern Mexico, hoping to photograph jaguars, one of the most elusive creatures in the Americas. Pietro’s hope is that the images in his new book, Jaguar Story, will help spur conservation efforts for the only living member of the genus Panthera native to the Americas.

Check out our slideshow from Jaguar Story.


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Illustration by Dalma Dibuz
| Article |

It’s Past Time to Dismantle Racism in the Outdoors

A recent National Park Service study shows that Black Americans remain far less likely than whites to visit national parks, forests, and wilderness areas—a result of the exclusionary history of parks and public spaces in this country. Prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many national parks in the South and “border” states maintained segregated bathrooms, restaurants, picnic areas, lodgings, and campsites, and restricted access to other "white-only" spaces.

"That legacy has a long afterlife," says Our Wild America press secretary Courtney Bourgoin.


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Photo by iStockphoto.com/Remus86
| Take Action |

No Bear-Baiting in Kenai Refuge

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed opening Alaska’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge to bear baiting—a shameful, cowardly, unethical practice that lets hunters attract hungry bears with bait like donuts and then shoot them when they show up. Fish and Wildlife has always prohibited bear baiting in the Kenai Refuge. Help us keep it that way.

Tell US Fish and Wildlife: No bear baiting and free-for-all trapping in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

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Photo by iStockphoto.com/Tonkovic
| Take Action |

Stop the Money Pipeline

The US Export-Import Bank (EXIM) is enabling the continued operation of a deadly coal plant in India. This April, a dam at the Sasan Coal Plant in the state of Madhya Pradesh burst, creating a massive flood of coal ash that killed six people. Months after that initial burst, toxic coal ash continues to pollute water and community cropland.

Tell EXIM to cut ties with India's deadly Sasan Coal Plant and its negligent operator.


Donate your car today!
Donate your car today!
| Business Partnership | Donate Your Car |

New Purpose for Old Rides

Do you have a vehicle you no longer need? Consider donating it to the Sierra Club Foundation! Donating your vehicle will help support our work safeguarding the health of our communities and protecting our wildlife and natural resources. Our partners at CARS will pick up your vehicle from any location, no matter its condition, at no cost to you. CARS accepts trucks, trailers, boats, RVs, motorcycles, and more.

Call 855-337-4377 or visit us online to donate your car—it's easy!

 


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